1)      Identify arguments and adjuncts in the following sentences. Discuss problematic examples.

Short explanation to my answers:

The important verb is written in bold letters, the selected arguments are underlined.

An adjunct is written in italics.

Theta roles are written in brackets.

a)      John has abandoned his family.

“has abandoned” has 2 arguments, namely “John” (agent) and “his family”(experiencer)    

John and Mary have abandoned their family.

                        The same is valid for this case, “have abandoned” selects as its arguments

                        “John and Mary” (agent) and “their family” (experiencer). 

b)     John encountered Mary in the park.

“Encountered” takes two arguments, the internal argument “Mary” (patient) and the external one, namely “John” ( agent ). “In the park” is an adjunct.

John met Mary in the park.

The same like the sentence above, only with the verb “met”.

John and Mary met in the park.

                        “In the park” is an adjunct. “John and Mary” occupy the same position here. I

think they aren´t agents, rather theme. There are two options: “met” turned from a transitive into an intransitive verb, or there is an empty category that contains a reflexive pronoun. I prefer the second alternative, but I am unsure about this assumption.

c)      Mary suddenly left the house at four thirty.

“left” selects “Mary” ( agent ) and “the house” ( location ) as its arguments. The rest are adjuncts.

After dinner, Mary left.

Here we have an intransitive version of leave, therefore we have “Mary” (agent) as the only selected argument. We find an adjunct before the comma.

d)     Soon after her departure, Mary found a job.

Again, at the beginning is an adjunct. “Found” selects “Mary” ( agent ) and “a job” ( theme ) as their arguments.

Mary found the job very interesting.

Here found selects “Mary” ( agent / experiencer ) and “the job very interesting” ( theme ) as their arguments.

Mary found her son another job.

                        I think that the two arguments are “Mary” ( agent ) and “another job” ( theme )

because we could paraphrase it as Mary found another job for her son.

e)      John called a taxi.

“Called” selects “John” ( agent ) and “a taxi” ( theme ) as its arguments.

They called him a taxi.

The same like in the sentence Mary found her son another job.

John called him a thief.

“John” is the agent here and “him a thief” is the theme.